Making It Official
by africana
Summary: "Be mine." "It doesn't sound like much of a question when you say it with your teeth clenched like that." SS Month


Two one-shots in the same week? Just one of the perks of being unemployed during the summertime...

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**Making It Official**

_Prompt 7: Night Out_

_._

"So here we are, all dressed up, finishing our meal at Le Cheri." She sipped at her drink, some fancy French wine that Sasuke had quickly murmured to the server. Fresh, not too heavy, with a hint of...strawberries, maybe? Gently holding the neck of the bottle, she twisted it in its position in the ice bucket towards her, squinting to make out the name on the gilded label. "If I remember correctly, this is where we had out first date, no?" Her eyes suspiciously slid towards Sasuke's silent form, waiting for some kind of physical reaction that deep down, she knew would never come. You could never rely on body language when it came to him.

"Is there a special reason you brought me here?"

"..."

She rolled her eyes. You couldn't really rely on spoken language either. Or visual cues. Or intuition. To be honest, she thought as she swirled her wine glass, she was surprised she had managed to figure out such a complicated creature. To an extent.

"I know you didn't bring me here to scowl at me in silence because you could've done that from anywhere for free. So..."

Somehow, his scowl deepened which caused her to frown unconsciously in response. Mostly because it was a shame that such a pretty face like his was going to be marred with frown lines when he aged. A waste really. And then, because he thought frowning didn't become Sakura at all, he attempted to rearrange his face into a more neutral expression. He took a breath and his face smoothed back into its ground state blankness. She smiled appreciatively.

"I brought you here because you told me that all very important questions have to be asked in a special way because you have an innate need for theatrics."

"It's called romance Sasuke. We've been over this. But anyway—" placing her glass down slowly, she sat back in her seat and crossed her legs in a fluid motion that didn't indicate just how restricting the skirt of her evening dress was "-onto your important question." An inquisitive hand curled under her chin made her the very vision of leisure. One wanted to be comfortable when watching a show after all.

There was a noticeable twitch of his eyebrow that he quickly attempted to suppress, for her sake. He sighed, reluctantly beginning his speech. "Five months ago today, after rebuffing my requests for several weeks, you finally allowed me to take you out. And I brought you here to Le Cheri."

Sakura chuckled fondly, reminiscing. "That was a terrible date." Sasuke smiled sheepishly in agreement.

"It was."

"And the only reason the second date went better was because I planned it." As she sipped more of her wine, she caught the little disapproval wrinkle appear on his brow.

"A whole three months later..."

"Well I needed the time to recover from that terrible night. Count yourself lucky that I even allowed another date to happen. Shall I make a list of every awful detail of that first one?" Prepared to protest or defend himself, Sasuke folded his arms, mouth open and ready to reply. When he surprisingly decided against it and stayed silent, Sakura considered the idea that maybe, just maybe, he was finally learning when to let things go like the good man-friend she had been training him to be.

"Anyway, I brought you here tonight to tell you that you are an important person to me and I enjoyed getting to know you over the past two months or so and..." Was that the slightest bit of color she spied creeping up the back of his neck? Could it be? Nearly instinctually, a goading smile began to spread across her face before she quickly repressed it. After all, this was an important moment. Gloating and teasing would come later—now was about experiencing and relishing. Sitting up, she kept her eyes on Sasuke's face, trying to memorize the details of the moment—how she felt, what he looked like, what she heard, smelled, saw—the moment that Sasuke turned his pretty little head towards her and said:

"I want you."

Oh. She blinked. Twice for good measure, hoping that he was simply taking a pause for the sake of anticipation. When there didn't seem to be any continuation, she knew she needed to step in.

"...is that the end of the sentence?" She was trying very hard to keep her tone neutral and not disapproving, no matter how much disappointment she actually felt.

Slightly perplexed, because he thought he had done everything right to this point, Sasuke thought for a moment, trying to find the error of his words. "I want you…for myself."

"..."

Although he wasn't a big proponent of it himself, Sasuke had become rather versed in Sakura body language, by necessity mostly. So he knew that a stiff sip of wine paired with a blank gaze was not a good sign. There was his wrinkle, making another appearance on his otherwise perfectly smooth forehead as he impatiently sought another way to express himself.

"I want you…off the market."

"..." She sat completely still, watching him scowl and murmur incoherent things under his breath, probably cursing this whole thing.

"I want you…in my life—"

Oh yes, this was an improvement. Her smile of approval seemed to be his godsend as his body lost some of its tension. _Go on_, she tried to say with her eyes and her smile. _Go on_. Swallowing, he did.

"I want you… in my life…even more." Satisfied, he sat back in his chair, romantically spent, waiting for a response.

She moved forward with a sigh, and rested her elbows on the table, lacing her fingers together under her nose. Not much of a romantic proclamation at all. She probably had been expecting too much; it was Sasuke after all. A month or so of hanging out and fooling around hadn't changed him that much.

"Is that it?"

Oh dear, he looked offended. As if she was downplaying all his efforts. Part of her wanted to roll her eyes while the other part wanted to pinch his little emotionally naïve cheeks. "Sakura you know what I'm asking you!"

"Of course I do."

"Then answer the question."

Now she did have to roll her eyes because it was unhealthy to pen up all her agitation when dealing with the denseness that was Uchiha Sasuke. Her arms fell flat against the table and she looked at him pointedly. "Well I didn't _hear _a question Sasuke-kun. And it's hard to respond to a question when it's not being asked."

"Be mine."

"It doesn't sound like much of a question when you say it with your teeth clenched like that."

"Damn it Sakura! Can you just—" Pinching the bridge of his nose didn't seem to be relieving any stress so instead, he turned to words. "I brought you here to this stupid restaurant that neither of us really likes because it was where we had our first date and I guess that means something to you or something. And I bought you flowers and dressed up with this ridiculous tie and got this wine because you're…_you_ and for some reason you like this crap. I did all of this just so I can ask you to be with me because—" he gritted his teeth, his face frozen in a pained grimace, his hand a stiff claw hovering in front of his chest. "Because—!" All at once, the fervor left him and he slumped tiredly in his chair, broken.

Her poor baby. Words had never been his thing. With a sympathetic smile, she reached across the table and gently touched his wrist. A moment later, his hand came to life and grasped hers. He looked up, pleadingly.

"Sakura. will you please be mine?"

"Of course Sasuke."


End file.
